AllupInyourBiz

It is a little bit disconcerting when the largest financial stakeholder in the US government goes on the air and expresses concern about it’s debtor’s ability to repay. I mean, what would happen if China called all of their notes due, today? Would they foreclose on our government? Would Jiabao show up at the Whitehouse with a couple of marshalls, and be like “alight Bam, hand over the keys. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.” These are all things that would have been important to contemplate before making rash budgetary decisions. This is one huge issue where I hope that I never get to say “I told you so.”

[photo: Diego Azubel/European Pressphoto Agency]

But could it be that this:

Is a result of this:

[photo by Gettyimages]

I saw this graphic today on Animal New York, and it got me thinking.

The amount of money represented in the graphic above, is one billion dollars. One trillion dollars is one thousand times what you see in the picture. That’s a lot of cash. Ok, now that you have the mental image of one trillion dollars, try to put it into a practical example. I hate Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh as much as the next guy, but Rove has published a couple of articles recently that have really gotten under my skin (not because of the author). The reason they bothered me, is because the content of the articles, points to all of the discrepancies of the campaigning Obama, vs. Commander in Chief Obama. Today, a different Carl, sent me the link to an WSJ Op. Ed. piece authored by Rove. A lot of it was repeat content of an article published earlier this week, also authored by Rove, dealing with bait and switch. But the part of today’s article that blew my mind, was the following:

Not even Team Obama can forestall unpleasant reality. And among those America now faces is Mr. Obama adding $3.2 trillion to the national debt in his first 20 months and 11 days in office, eclipsing the $2.9 trillion added during the Bush presidency’s entire eight years.

Whoa! $2.9T is a lot any way you slice it. But to Bush’s credit, it was spread over 8 years, including all of the 911 and war crap. The Obama administration is a runaway train and the boiler fire is being stoked by pallets full of money. 20 months?!!! $3.2 trillion?!! Ok, so now take the money in the picture, multiply it by 1 thousand, then multiply that by 3.2. It may just be my limited imagination, but I’m having a hard time even picturing the image of 1 thousand times what is in the graphic. Was this really the kind of change that we were looking for?

I thought that this video was a pretty clever way of portraying what happened with the economy.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

This month, a writer from Details Magazine was the latest victim of having to listen to Kanye bleed from the mouth about how awesome he is, before publishing it in the magazine. During the course of the interview, Kanye discusses his attempts at video game design (as a youth), admits to completely re-inventing himself, orders flower arrangements, and reiterates his opinion that he is the “voice of this generation.”

Kanye discusses when he first became interested in making beats. He claims that is was when he was in 7th grade, doing beats for a video game he was designing, saying:  “I got into doing beats for the video games I used to try to make. My game was very sexual. The main character was, like, a giant penis.” Skipping ahead to the end of the article:

This isn’t the first reset, of course, that West has engineered. “My story is so written, like God has a plan for me-an exact parallel, like I’ve seen this before, I’m back in Groundhog Day again,” he says. “Like the Glow in the Dark tour-that was like going back and finally finishing up that video game. Except now it was me in the video game.”

Ok, so, wait. Kanye, you are now that huge dick from the video game? Got it.

Moving along… Some of my favorite quotes from the article include:

Oh my God, I’m one of the greatest rappers in the world… I’ll get on a track and completely ee-nihilate that track, I’ll eat it and rip it in half. I wouldn’t have to think of it.

and;

I am the voice of this generation… If not me, then who? … Someone could be a better rapper, dance better. But culturally impacting? When you look back at these four and a half years, who’s the icon at the end of the day? Who broke down color barriers? What other black guy would a white person use as a fashion reference?

Totally. I seriously can’t think of one other person who has had a larger cultural impact than Kanye. I mean, the guy practically paved the way for Obama to get in the white house. There were all of these sartorially challenged, slightly racist white-guy voters out there, who were able to get past their prejudices by taking style tips from Kanye, because he is one of the greatest rappers in the world.

But seriously, the best part of the article (besides the fact that an author finally gave credit where it’s due, citing Cher for popularizing the voice modulator), is when Kanye tries to flip the colloquial derogatory connotation of  the word “gay.” Read Kanye’s analysis carefully:

Take the word gay-like, in hip-hop, that’s a negative thing, right? But in the past two, three years, all the gay people I’ve encountered have been, like, really, really, extremely dope. Y’know, I haven’t, like, gone to a gay bar, nor do I ever plan to. But where I would talk to a gay person-the conversation would be mostly around, like, art or design-it’d be really dope. From a design standpoint, kids’ll say, ‘Dude, those pants are gay.’ But if it’s, like, good, good, good fashion-level, design-level stuff, where it’s on a higher level than the average commercial design stuff, it’s, like, gay people that do that. I think that should be said as a compliment. Like, ‘Dude, that’s so good it’s almost . . . gay.

Ok, it was fairly well thought out. But dude, I’m sorry, it’s just not going to fly. Or maybe Kanye really is a genius, and the whole blurb above is just one of those “joke’s on you” plots, like R. Kelly’s whole “in the closet” bit.  Kanye says the “kids’ll” say it, then he laughs when the kids start saying it. Hmmmmmmmm. Nope, on second thought, a complex ploy like that is clearly outside of the scope of Kanye’s mental ability.

[Photo by NY Magazine]

Ok, we all know that Karl Rove is not the most neutral guy out there. But his comments today in the WSJ article, entitled “Presidential Bait-and-Switch,” were for the most part, spot on. Rove points out the fact the Obama’s victory was based largely on his promise to implement “change.” Granted, it has not been very long, since the new president has been in office. But, Rove points out two very large areas where Obama has only given us more of the same. If the economy and fiscal policy of the federal government was not such a prima facie issue right now, no one would probably even care. Unfortunately for Obama, fiscal policy is under extreme scrutiny, and is the forum that he needs to use, to make good on all of his promises of “change.” The two huge discrepancies in what Obama promised versus what he is giving us are, Obama’s measures that have increased (instead of the promised decreasing of) the deficit, and Obama’s failure to reform earmarking practices. Rove observes:

Mr. Obama didn’t run promising larger deficits — but now is offering record-setting ones. He’ll add $4.9 trillion before his term ends and $7.4 trillion if given a second, doubling the national debt in five years and tripling it in 10. Mr. Obama’s deficits will be much larger than he admits because he relies on rosy economic assumptions and gimmicks that mask spending and debt (like assuming popular new programs he supports won’t be renewed).

Nor did Mr. Obama run promising more earmarks. Instead, he said he’d reform the earmark culture and “scour the federal budget, line by line, and make meaningful cuts.” Now he wants to wave through a $410 billion omnibus spending bill with about 8,500 earmarks. This is on top of the $787 billion stimulus bill signed into law two weeks ago.

Obama justifies it by blaming it on the previous administration, calling it “last year’s business.” I’m sorry Obama, I’m not buying it. The follies of the Bush administration are not preventing you from making good on your promise to curb earmarking. If you are going to try to legislate the economy, at least do it in the way that you promised you would.